Lorelai pushed her magic into the scales she held and yelled, “Give me fire!”
Heat ignited in Mik’s chest. All along the line of dragons, smoke poured from their mouths as the fires in their chests roared to life.
“Now!”
As fire exploded from the dragon’s mouths, Lorelai raised her hands. “Zhech`pusk! May the fire destroy any magic it touches.”
Brilliant white magic shot through the fire, turning it into a blazing yellow-white ball easily twice the size of Trugg. Lorelai swept her hands forward and the fireball struck the hedge.
For a moment, nothing burned. The magic that had sent the hedge toward the sky held it steady.
But that was magic created out of bitterness and greed from a heart that knew only how to conquer instead of how to love.
Plus, Lorelai’s heart wasn’t alone in this fight. She had seven Draconi warriors willing to die for the cause as well. Leaning down, she whispered to the scales, to their dragon hearts, that she needed strength. Purpose. Courage to push past the hedge’s magic and into the other side.
The dragons roared, and Lorelai felt their will, their resolve, slam into the magic that held the hedge.
The fireball ate through the branches, sending flaming bits of leaves and thorns raining on the ground far below. The magic in the hedge fought back, creating more branches, more thorns, but the Eldrians would not be swayed.
Lorelai would not be swayed.
The dragons pushed into the hedge, following in the wake of the fire that slowly consumed the barrier. Thorns raked at them, and Lorelai hid her face against Mik’s side to keep from being sliced open. She hadn’t created a shield for herself. She was absolutely certain shielding herself from other magic meant completely cutting off her Irina-tainted connection to Kol, and that was a risk she wasn’t willing to take.
In moments, the fireball exploded out the other side of the hedge and streaked for the ground. The dragons followed immediately behind it.
“Voshtet,” Lorelai said, focusing on the fire. “Rise and fly before your dragon masters and obey their command.”
On the castle grounds below, wolves prowled and trees shook gnarled branches at the sky before slamming them into the ground.
Leaning close to Mik’s ear, Lorelai said, “When you face a threat that your regular dragon strength can’t defeat, tell my fire spell what to do. It’s part of your heart. It will obey you. You’ll be okay.”
Mik dipped her head in acknowledgment as the dragons streaked down the south side of the castle, blasting fire into the trees that lunged for them, until they came to the entrance. The second the dragons touched the ground, the wolves attacked.
Trugg roared as the animals, foaming at the mouth, ran toward them. The ground shook and then erupted as spiders, centipedes, and snakes burst out of the dirt and swarmed toward the dragons.
“Help them fight!” Lorelai yelled as the other dragons smashed, burned, and tore into their foes.
Mik strafed the ground with fire, engulfing a pair of trees and a swarm of spiders that were racing toward them. Lorelai slid off her back, her knees shaking, but her hands steady.
Two more wolves stood sentry at the castle’s entrance, their lips curled in vicious snarls.
Sasha, perch! Magic gathered in her palm like lightning as Lorelai lifted her bare hand into the air. Sasha swooped out of the sky and landed on Lorelai’s palm as the wolves dug their talons into the porch and howled, foam dripping from their mouths.
The lightning in Lorelai’s palm wrapped around Sasha, and the power coursing through the princess leaped for the threads of awareness that connected Sasha to the rest of the birds in the forest.
“Hat`sja. Come together. Come to me.”
Sasha shuddered. The wolves locked eyes with Lorelai and dug their claws into the ground.
Lorelai braced her feet as power spilled out of her. The wolves leaped forward. Lorelai spun away from one, but the other slammed into her and sent her to her knees. The gyrfalcon shrieked with fury and raked the wolf with her talons as it snapped at Lorelai’s hands.
“Hat`sja!” Lorelai yelled as her power pulsed with a multitude of heartbeats from the surrounding trees. Behind her, the dragons roared, and the thick, wet sound of battle filled the air, but Lorelai couldn’t help them. She was too busy trying to survive long enough to get herself inside the castle.
Pain seared her, and she kicked at the wolf who was snapping at her, rolling to the side as it lunged for her and barely avoiding the jaws of the smaller wolf.
Kill them all. Kill, kill, kill. Sasha slammed into the biggest wolf and then shrieked in pain as the other wolf nipped her wing.
Lorelai kicked the larger wolf, sending it skidding over the ground, and scrambled to her feet. She turned toward the castle’s entrance, where another pair of foaming, snarling wolves stood waiting. Perch, Sasha. Hurry. She held her hand in the air and sent her magic into the gyrfalcon the instant the bird settled onto her open palm.
There was an awful grinding sound as the bird’s wounded wing knit back together, and then a rustle swept through the surrounding trees. It started as a whisper, a few leaves shushing together in the breeze, and then grew louder and louder until it sounded like a hurricane ripping leaves from branches and branches from trees.
The wolves behind Lorelai growled and stalked toward her, while those in front of her crouched waiting. She braced herself to run, to fight, but then birds of every size exploded out of the trees and flew straight at Lorelai. The wolves behind Lorelai were battered from all sides, caught in the maelstrom until they were smashed against tree trunks and left discarded on the ground like crumpled toys. The animals at the castle’s entrance lunged for her, but they were driven back by a wall of birds that circled Lorelai, a swirling funnel cloud of sharp beaks and bright eyes, and swept her from the ground until she seemed to float in their midst midair.
The wolves howled as the larger birds left the funnel cloud, raked the animals with their talons, and then rejoined the rest of the flock only to do it all over again.
Kill? It was Sasha’s voice. It was a hawk’s voice. A robin’s. A dove’s. The strength of hundreds of birds speaking to her at once drove a spike of pain through Lorelai’s head. She spun slowly within the funnel cloud, high above the ground, buffeted by wings on all sides.
Kill. She answered the birds. The flock lowered her to the ground and then swept toward anything that stood between Lorelai and the castle, tearing it to pieces. As the dragons battled behind her, Lorelai mounted the steps to the entrance hall and reached for Kol. She found darkness. Pain. And a terrible hunger for Lorelai’s heart.
But she also sensed that he was close. Which meant either Irina had sent Kol out to fight Lorelai in her stead, or they were both waiting for her together somewhere in the castle.
There was only one way to find out.
The door to the entrance hall was heavy—the wood as thick as a horse’s back with stone knockers and ornate iron handles—and Lorelai had to lean into it to get it open.
A page stood on the other side of the door, her mouth open in shock to see Lorelai step inside.
“Leave,” Lorelai said softly as the echo of the door swinging shut behind her reverberated through the hall.
The girl’s eyes widened, and she tugged on the collar of her uniform. “But I can’t just . . . you can’t just—”
Lorelai locked eyes with her. “I am Lorelai Diederich, daughter of Arlen Diederich the Third. This is my castle, and I am your queen. If you want the current usurper of a queen to spare your life in the upcoming battle between us, then you need to leave. Now. Go hide somewhere and don’t come back until morning.”
The page slowly backed away.
Lorelai turned away as the girl disappeared into a side corridor. The entrance hall with its sumptuous marble floors, ornately curved staircase, and decorative benches gifted to Queen Rosalinde I a century ago by the ruler of Balavata looked exactly the same as it did in
Lorelai’s memory.
She walked to the middle of the room and sank to the floor in the spot where she’d last seen her father alive. Where he’d told her to protect her brother.
Lorelai hadn’t been able to save her father or her brother. But she could honor their memory now. And she could free the rest of Ravenspire, the people her father had pledged to lead and protect—the people he would’ve raised her to lead and protect—from the tyranny of its unlawful queen.
Her fingers tingled, and the cold, implacable heart of the marble stirred. Beneath it, Lorelai felt the barrier of mountain stone that had been used centuries ago as the foundation for the castle. It was her mountain, and the heart recognized her with a little surge of power.
She reached farther, pushing past the stone to the ground of Ravenspire itself, introducing herself to its heart once more. Telling it what she wanted and why she was asking.
Showing it that she meant to heal the damage it had endured all these years.
Lorelai pulled her magic back and let a single throb of grief for her father and brother ache in her chest before she lifted her hands.
She felt him—the terrible agony, the desperate need to hurt her—before she saw him.
“Kol.” She looked up and there he was, his eyes bleak and feral, his neck raw from the collar he wore, and his dragon talons curved and ready as he faced her across the expanse of marble that stretched from one end of the hall to the other.
She’d save Kol first and then look for Gabril and Irina.
It’s okay, she sent to Kol, even though she wasn’t sure he could hear her. She stood and faced him, opening her arms. My heart already belongs to you. Come and take it.
Her magic flared, racing through her veins to gather in her palms like lightning. Something flickered in his eyes, and Lorelai leaned toward him, willing him to see her. To trust that she wouldn’t let him become what he feared the most. That she would save him, no matter what.
“How absolutely touching. I do believe if I left the two of you alone, you might actually manage to rescue him.” Irina’s voice was sugar-coated knives, just like it had been in Nordenberg, but this time, Lorelai wasn’t going to run.
She turned, putting her back to Kol, and found Irina standing in front of the door, Gabril bleeding and chained beside her while an enormous black viper coiled about his neck. Irina’s hands were already wreathed in magic, her smile a slash of cruelty across her face.
UNCORRECTED E-PROOF—NOT FOR SALE
HarperCollins Publishers
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THIRTY-NINE
LORELAI FACED IRINA, her magic burning in her palms, her knees shaking. Nine years of training. Hiding. Waking up screaming in the middle of the night with Irina’s cold blue eyes blazing in her memory.
She’d been terrified of what the queen was capable of—she still was. But Lorelai knew what she was capable of. And she knew how far her heart was willing to go—how much she would sacrifice—to take Ravenspire’s false queen off the throne.
It was time to end this. Looking Irina in the eye, Lorelai said, “I told you this was the last day you would ever breathe Ravenspire air again.”
Irina’s lip curled. “You disappoint me.” She took a step forward. “You had so much potential. I could have trained you into a mardushka worthy of being my daughter.”
“I already have a mother,” Lorelai said. “One you tried hard to erase.”
“Oh, I didn’t just try, princess. I erased her very existence.” She took another small step toward one of the wooden benches that lined the wall.
“You can’t erase someone when their memories live on.” Lorelai lifted her chin and held out her hands, palms toward the floor. “I remember my mother. I remember my father and brother, too.”
“You took Arlen from me.” Irina’s voice rose. “You took everything from me.”
Lorelai slowly crouched toward the floor as Irina came closer to the bench. She couldn’t allow Irina to touch the bench without having a spell of her own ready. She remembered the wooden vines from the night her father died.
“I took nothing from you that was truly yours.” Lorelai’s voice was steady. “Everything you have, you’ve stolen. You’ve misused your power to force others to give you the life you think you deserve. You’ve killed those in your way, tortured those who stood up to you, and destroyed the land with your insatiable appetite for power at any cost.”
Irina stopped moving toward the bench. Her smile raised the hair on the back of Lorelai’s neck. “And I suppose you think you’re going to be able to stop me.”
Lorelai’s throat tightened, but she held Irina’s gaze and said, “Yes.”
Irina’s eyes gleamed. “You’re going to lose. Do you know why? Because you’ve already made the mistake that will destroy you.” She extended her hands toward the bench, her magic reaching for the wood as Lorelai sank toward the floor. “You thought I was the biggest threat in the room. You were wrong. You really shouldn’t have turned your back to him.”
The queen lunged for the bench, her hands connecting. Lorelai slammed her hands onto the marble floor, her magic surging.
And then Kol struck Lorelai from behind, knocking her on her side.
She skidded across the marble, and Irina laughed wildly as shafts of wood exploded from the bench and became a mass of vipers writhing and hissing as they slithered over the marble toward Lorelai.
The princess grabbed the handful of dragon scales from her pocket and focused on the Draconi’s hearts. The snakes coiled themselves, ready to strike, fangs already dripping venom. Lorelai shouted “Zhech`pusk.” as the closest viper lunged for her face.
A bolt of white-orange fire shot from her hands and engulfed the snake. Lorelai swept her arm wide, and the fire leaped from snake to snake.
Irina pressed her palms to the polished cherry wall, and a hail of barbed wooden spears flew out of the wall and headed straight for Lorelai.
She threw up a hand to defend herself, but Kol was there, grabbing her hand and dragging her away. At first, she thought he was pulling her to safety, but soon she realized that he was taking her to Irina. His grip was like iron, and every surge of magic she sent into his hand met resistance as hard as stone.
Irina was right. She owned him now. The only way to save Kol was to kill the mardushka whose magic was poisoning his mind, body, and heart.
But she couldn’t kill Irina if she was thrown, helpless, at the queen’s feet.
The spears clattered to the marble floor behind her and became thick, branchlike vines with serrated leaves and gaping teeth-filled mouths where flowers should be.
Lorelai bent double at the waist and shoved the back of Kol’s knees with her free hand. He stumbled, his grip softening. She yanked her hand free and twisted away from him, her palms hitting the marble floor.
“Rast`lozh,” she said, and the marble began expanding in a half circle around the princess, surging toward the ceiling like polished white hills and cutting her off from Irina.
Irina’s vines slid over the top of Lorelai’s barrier, their mouths snapping as they came for the princess. She spun to her left to avoid them. Kol snatched her waist and began trying to drag her up one of the slippery marble hills toward where Irina still stood beside the wall.
Lorelai looked past Irina to find Gabril’s face a deep shade of red as the snake around his neck tightened its hold. Desperation blazed through her, and she struggled against Kol’s grip.
Kol, listen to my voice. Hold on to me. I can help you. I can save you.
Irina laughed. “He can’t hear you. He hears only the pounding of his dragon heart and the voice of his queen.”
Lorelai whirled, planted her right foot against Kol’s left thigh, and launched herself backward out of his arms. Snarling, he lunged for her. She spun into the air, hit him in the chest with a roundhouse kick, and sent him crashing to the ground.
Sprinting out of the half c
ircle of marble, Lorelai dove for the floor, and spoke the incantor again the second her palm touched down.
The marble expanded once more, completing the circle, rising like a loaf of bread until it was over Kol’s head.
He was trapped inside a fence of marble.
He was safe.
Now it was just Lorelai and Irina.
The vines rushed for Lorelai, tangling in her feet and sinking vicious little teeth into her legs. She kicked at them as her skin burned and blistered from the venom in their fangs, but she didn’t have time to think of an incantor to deal with them.
She needed to stop defending herself and start attacking.
“Do you really think you can take my huntsman out of the game?” Irina sent a bolt of magic into the floor and the marble circle cracked in half.
Kol burst through the opening and ran toward Lorelai, but she was focused on the arc of marble closest to the queen.
Pushing her palms against the floor, she whispered an incantor, and the thick half-moon of marble skidded across the room, slamming into Irina and pinning her to the wall. The marble knocked Gabril to the side, and he thrashed against the chains that bound him.
Irina screamed an incantor. Kol reached Lorelai, whose feet were still tangled in vines, as the windows that surrounded the door shattered and the glass teardrop chandelier fell from the ceiling to explode into shards against the floor.
The princess put one hand on Kol, desperately sending her magic into him, trying to smash through the barrier Irina had erected. With the other hand, she reached over a pile of writhing, snapping vines for the closest shard of glass.
Kol shoved her hand away, and Lorelai stumbled. Snatching at his shirt, she kept herself from falling as she bent at the waist and scooped up the glass. A vine lashed itself around her wrist and sank its little teeth into her arm. The pain was a brilliant flare that streaked through her veins and sent the room swaying, but Lorelai didn’t hesitate.
Holding the glass, feeling the heart of the Ravenspire sand that had been sacrificed to make the chandelier, she said, “Tvor`zhi.” It was the same incantor the queen used to create snakes, but Lorelai had a different creature in mind.